Child labour (Sunday, November 24, 2013) How 16-year-old Ghanaian was rescued in Lagos

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

When a Non-Governmental Organisation, the Patriotic Citizens Initiative (PCI) took its campaigns against trans-border human trafficking, especially on teenage girls, to Mile 2 International Park, Lagos, it was because of the strategic nature of the garage. The organisation has recently, in collaboration with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP), taken the campaigns to the garage soliciting the collaboration of the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria, ECOWAS Chapter, in the fight against child trafficking, since the garage has been identified as the exit point to West African countries like Ghana, Benin, Togo, Sierra-Leone etc. The executive members of the transport union had promised to collaborate with them to eradicate such evil activities along that coastal route.

And to make good their promise, the PCI Director and Founder, Osita Osemene, was promptly informed when a 16-year-old Ghanaian girl, Fidels Abbas wandered into the garage on October 30, 2013.

From her account, she was a victim of child slavery who was running away from her tormentors. The innocent-looking teenager was bundled from Ghana to Nigeria in 2011, when she was barely 14 years old and dumped at Ibadan by her own mother. She said her mother had deceived her that she was coming to Nigeria to live with her senior aunt. But surprisingly, the couple she was handed over to were not Ghanaians; they were Nigerians.

She said she was in primary six when her mother withdrew her from school in Ghana and sold her into a family in Ibadan, where she was used as a maid at that tender age. She said the family turned her into a washer-woman as she washed virtually all the clothes in the family. She said she always battled to wash trouser jeans, which always came in heaps and each time her tormentors felt she didn’t properly wash the jeans; they would severely beat her. She also sold sachet water at Lagos-Ibadan Toll Gate for her madam; a business she equally received severe beatings whenever she lost money. She also cooked her own food and was not allowed to eat together with her master’s family. She ate twice daily and sometimes, she would be forced to eat white rice without stew.

So, for more than two years, little Fidels had gone through the most tortuous moments of her life. She became psychologically troubled and she started planning for her escape. He mother, according to her, never visited her throughout the period of her enslavement.

Narrating how she came to Nigeria in 2011, she said: “I am from Osino in Ghana. I came to Nigeria in 2011, with my mother, who told me she was taking me to stay with my senior aunt. She took me to Ogere in Ibadan, where she handed me over to one pastor and his wife. Before, I left Ghana for Nigeria, I was in primary six. I am 16 years old.”

On what happened after her mother dropped her with the couple, she said her mother left Ibadan for Lagos where she presently lives, but she doesn’t know the place in Lagos.

Narrating her sordid experience in the hands of her masters, she said: “I worked for them. I washed their clothes, including jeans. They would pack all the jeans for me to wash and they would seriously beat me if I didn’t wash the jeans to their satisfaction. I also sold sachet water for my madam at Lagos-Ibadan Toll Gate. I used to make N500 but I would keep N200. I was doing that because they were maltreating me and I needed to save money to enable me go back to my father in Ghana.”

“But any day, I lose money after sales,” she continued, “They would beat hell out of me. They would cook their own food and ask me to cook my own. If I didn’t cook, I wouldn’t eat. I ate only two times in a day. Sometimes, they would not give me stew to eat the white rice, so I would eat it like that. I always ate Amala and rice.”

One would think she was being paid for her services or her mother was collecting money on her behalf, but Fidels wouldn’t know if such condition existed. She said: “They were not paying me any money and I don’t know if they were paying my mother. I was working for them as a slave.”

Although, her mother promised she would continue with her education in Nigeria, the pastor and his wife only enrolled her into primary five just in August. “Since 2011 that I came to stay with them, I have been working for them without going to school until last month when they enrolled me into primary five,” she cried.

She neither knew the man’s name nor that of his wife. All she knew was that the man is a pastor and she called his wife ‘mummy.’ She also knew that they live at 20, Bose Street Ogere.

Last straw that broke the camel’s back

Although, she had started saving money in preparation for her escape to Ghana, whenever the opportunity calls, she disappeared when they least expected. The couple had scolded and upbraided her for calling her father on phone. She said: “When the maltreatment was becoming too much, I called my father on phone, although I didn’t tell him what I was going through; I told him I wanted to know how he was faring. My father called my mother to inform her that I called and my mother called the family I was living with to inform them and to warn them that I should not be allowed again to communicate with my father. My mother also called me on phone and threatened to deal ruthlessly with me if I called my father again. The man and his wife scolded me; they almost beat me as my mother instructed them but they later changed their minds and only warned me never to try that again. That made me to run away.”

She said after the couple scolded her for speaking with her father, she made enquiries on how to get to Ghana and she was told to go to Lagos first before she could go to Ghana. Armed with the information, she left the house when her tormentors were not around and headed to Lagos.

Fidels in Lagos

When she got to Lagos, she didn’t know where to go. She was wandering aimlessly and asking questions and that attracted a large crowd, who gathered to listen to her story. An Okada rider, after listening to her pathetic story volunteered to help her and took her to Mile Park, where she was handed over to Augustine Eroteme, an executive member to the transport union.

Why she wants to go back to Ghana

“I want to go back to my father; I want to go back to my homeland.  I don’t like the kind of treatment I was getting there and that’s why I want to go back. When I was leaving, they didn’t know. So, I want to go back to Ghana,” she cried repeatedly.

Asked if she would be able to find her way to her father’s house from the park in Ghana if she was taken there, she said: “Yes, I will be able to find my way to my father’s house from the park in Ghana if I get there.”

Transport Union’s angle

When the Deputy Chairman, Operations, Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria, ECOWAS Chapter, Mile 2, Lagos, Augustine Eroteme, whom the unknown Okada rider handed Fidels over to, was contacted, he said he quickly contacted Mr Osemene when it became obvious from the girl’s account that she was a victim of child trafficking.

Narrating how it all happened, he said: “We were just here this afternoon when one Okada rider brought this small girl to me. He said the girl was stranded somewhere and she was surrounded by so many people when he got there. He said he took pity on her after he interviewed her and found out that she was from Ghana and couldn’t find her way. He said he decided to bring her to the park because he knew that he would find Ghanaians in the park, who would take the girl back home. He said when he asked the girl where she was coming from, she told him she was living with somebody but the person chased her out of the house.”

After the Okada rider had narrated how and why he assisted the girl to the park, Eroteme took the girl over from him and promised to put her in a vehicle going to Ghana. But before he did that, he also subjected the girl to more questioning, during which he discovered more facts. He found out that the girl was too young to be exposed to that kind of risk. He asked the girl for her mother’s contact but she couldn’t provide any. He also asked for her father’s contact, which she did at once; she had her father’s phone number off heart. When Eroteme called her father and informed him of his daughter’s predicament, he pleaded that the girl be put in a Ghana-bound vehicle; a request which was turned down out rightly by Eroteme, who insisted that the girl was too young to be exposed to such risk. Besides, he was afraid that if anything happened to the girl, he would be held responsible.

“I asked the girl how much she had and she said N2000. I asked her if she had her father’s phone number and she gave me. I called her father and told him that his daughter was with me and that I didn’t know what to do. He said I should put her inside a Ghana bound vehicle, so that he would pay the driver on arrival in Ghana but I told him point black that I would not do that because the girl was too young to be exposed to such risk. Almost immediately, one woman called me and said the girl was her daughter. She asked me to put the girl on an Iyana-Oba bound vehicle, so that from there she would proceed to Iju in Agege. I told her I wouldn’t do that because if anything happens to the girl, I would be held responsible,” he stated.

With the last conversation with a woman who claimed to be the girl’s mother, coupled with what the girl had earlier revealed, Eroteme was sure it was a case of child trafficking. “That was how I called Osita Osemene of the Patriotic Citizen’s Initiative, since we collaborate with his organisation and NAPTIP. I want to hand the girl over to him, so that they would take proper care of the girl and ensure she is safely re-united with her father in Ghana,” Eroteme said.

Osemene reacts

Reacting to the development, Osemene said: “I think it is a good development because what he has done is part of our agreement with them here in the park. We had come here severally for sensitization programme. We urged them to inform us any time they suspect human trafficking within the park. The last time we came, they agreed to partner with us in identifying victims of child trafficking, while we come to rescue them and hand over to NAPTIP, which is the body legally responsible for war against trafficking in human beings. So, I got a call concerning this girl and when I came, I asked her few questions and discovered that her case is very pathetic. A lot of things need to be investigated because she came in a questionable circumstance. So, I contacted the Zonal Commander of NAPTIP, Joseph Famakin, who asked me to bring the girl for further investigation and necessary action. That will be followed by the eventual hand over of the girl to her father in Ghana.”